Naturally curly hair

Every time I see the commercial on TV where a girl is flaunting her curly hair and another is in a salon using products especially designed to give you curly hair I want to throw something at the TV screen -- I was going to say I want to puke, but that would be gross.

I have naturally curly hair (NCH). How I wish it has been in style when I was a girl/teenager/young woman/older woman. But it wasn't.


I remember my dear playmates having their hair put up in rag curls or pin curls and their hair on Sunday would always look so perfect. My hair would look good for three seconds then, sproing, it would spring out in all directions -- that's the nature of naturally curly hair.

I have NCH, my sister has NCH, my girls have NCH, my son even has NCH. Alan has NCH, but he was able to train his hair to lie flat with the use of lots of Brill Creme. Girls couldn't use Brill Creme. Now days, though, my girls use those flat hair irons or the very large curling irons to straighten their very curly hair, because while "curly" hair is in, it's not NCH that is in-style. NCH never, and I mean NEVER will relax enough to have those cute little-girl like curls that the ladies are wearing now. I'm not bitter, Stacia.

I tried everything. VO5 creme was supposed to "relax" curls. NOT. Curl Free (a permanent to straighten one's hair) worked until you washed your hair again after the perm, then boing-oing-oing-oing the curls sprung lose again. Argh!


The poodle cut was perfect for me, but even then, my mom would put my hair in pin curls, and the result never looked like the poodle cut. (See picture) And I so badly wanted to have my hair in a pixie style. Mom tried to get my hair to stay straight on the sides but it didn't work.

Finally, there was the flip. I was able to get a pretty nice looking flip (right), and my hair looked great on my wedding day. But, I had just given myself a Curl Free perm and it was on the second day. By the time we got to Bermuda and I went swimming, well, I don't have to tell you what happened. My hair bunched up so bad I couldn't even put a comb through it.

Now, I have it easy. I have a good, no great, hair specialist and she cuts my hair so all I have to do is towel dry it and run my fingers through it, and it is in a style that is current for an elderly person with all white hair.